A 38-year-old man who treated his stepdaughter as his wife and raped her on multiple occasions has been sentenced to 15 years and 10 months imprisonment by the High Court in Suva.
Justice Rangajeeva Wimalasena in his sentence stated the complainant was about 15 years old when the first incident occurred during the third term school holidays in 2017.
The court was also told that on November 15, 2019, when the complainant was at home, the offender had observed a fading love bite on her neck after which he had gotten angry, started to punch her and later raped her.
Justice Wimalasena said the evidence revealed that the offender had treated the complainant like his wife and had been jealous when he had seen a fading love bite on her neck.
“According to the complainant’s evidence, you had refrained the complainant from going anywhere and you had wanted her to stay home always,” he said.
He added, according to the statistics released by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, 68 per cent of victims of sexual offences were children in 2019 and 2020.
Justice Wimalasena said the evidence showed the offender treated the complainant in a different manner and established a special relationship with her.
The man was initially given a head sentence of 17 years imprisonment with a non-parole period of 15 years, however, the one year and two months spent in remand custody was regarded as a period of imprisonment already served by the offender.
Therefore, the offender will serve a period of 15 years and 10 months imprisonment with a non-parole period of 13 years and 10 months.
